tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post5971252455592859718..comments2016-12-10T03:29:06.834+02:00Comments on Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog: Diving Into Noah's FloodDienekeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02082684850093948970noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-90168234405301967312012-01-11T03:30:22.752+02:002012-01-11T03:30:22.752+02:00&quot;So, it is perhaps through a blending of cult...&quot;So, it is perhaps through a blending of cultures that the Proto-Sumerian civilization was born: a marsh-adapted southern element, and an agriculture-bearing northern element joining to exploit the harsh but profitable environment that was formed as a result of these two processes&quot;. <br /><br />I became convinced years ago that the greatest &#39;advances&#39; in human well-being have occurred from the combination of two or more cultures and technologies. The Austronesians fit such a scenario. As does the development of Indo-Europeans. A case could be made that several ancient advances were also a product of such mixing: Levallois, hand-axe. Even perhaps the original evolution of the Homo genus from Australopithecus.terrythttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17327062321100035888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-39881762602473510432012-01-10T10:34:59.605+02:002012-01-10T10:34:59.605+02:00My thought is that expansion occurs when one group...My thought is that expansion occurs when one group has a higher potential population density in a particular environment than its current occupiers.<br /><br />If so the most common example would be marginal land where foraging has a low population density but farming would be no better. Farmers could expand into a region taking all the land suitable for farming and leaving the unsuitable land to foragers - possibily the vast majority by surface area - and yet still have a much higher total population because of much higher population density.<br /><br />However a second rarer example might be terriotory where foraging supports very high population densities. In this case farmers could expand into suitable farming land on the edges of this zone and remain a minority in total numbers. This might create the conditions for the spread of farming through knowledge rather than displacement.<br /><br />I wonder if the prime candidates for situations like this might be river deltas or similar - Nile delta, Baltic edge and maybe here also?Greyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13398462488549380796noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-4113950761601373352012-01-07T22:14:32.712+02:002012-01-07T22:14:32.712+02:00Ah my pet hypothesis... ;-) For a map of the sea l...Ah my pet hypothesis... ;-) For a map of the sea level changes in the Persian gulf see http://rses.anu.edu.au/geodynamics/AnnRep/95/AR-Geod953.gif. Sea levels reached a maximum about 5000-6000 years ago when they were 4 m higher then present. (&quot;World atlas of Holocene sea-level changes referring to Ridley and Seeley (1979)). Thus the Persian gulf reached Uruk and Ur at that time.Prostatohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06132870260488363887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-46214085981996056842012-01-07T16:27:41.463+02:002012-01-07T16:27:41.463+02:00An large fraction of our prehistory lies drowned o...An large fraction of our prehistory lies drowned on the coastal shelves. Might this lost knowledge change our views of human evolution?sykes.1http://www.blogger.com/profile/10954672321945289871noreply@blogger.com